THEATRICAL AND LITERARY NOTES. (FROM OUR LONDON CORRESPONDENT.) London, August 9.

Te Aroha News, Volume VII, Issue 406, 28 September 1889, Page 3

THEATRICAL AND LITERARY NOTES. (FROM OUR LONDON CORRESPONDENT.) London, August 9.

Mr Gilbert has handed over the first actor jbha^gffiit Savoy opera to Sir A. Sullivan. Idfflfi^fcything, a more serious work than tuj^^^Ktnan of the Guard." George Grt^HF has (temporarily, at any rate) sedSreairom the Savoy Company, and is touring in the provinces with a monologue entertainment of his own. Mr Frank Wyatt takes his place, and will play a leading part in the new opera. Nearly all the smart West End theatres, save Terry's, the Lyric, and the Prince ofWales', are now closed, aiid even at these establishments business is languid. I never witnessed such an exodus from town as there was last Friday and Saturday. From dawn to midnight the departure platforms at the great terminus were densely crowded with frantic and excited travellers, all trying (apparently fruitlessly) to get away in a hurry somewhere and somehow. Sir Morell Mackenzie, writing in the " Contemporary," declares that the quality of modern prima donnaS voices shows a marked falling off. The organs of our Melbas, Geraters, Macintyres, and Mario Rozes won't compare either for power, durability, or compass with those of the great artists of the past. Patti, Niilson, and Sembrich can, he says, alone of living vocalists be mentioned in the same breath with Gusi, Titiens, Alboni and other famous operatic queens. Sir Morell considers the high pitch used in England a chief cause of the mischief. His article altogether is interesting, especially to singers. Ib contains, for example, a number of hints as> to the management and cultivation of a promising voice which should be of immense use to beginners who cannot afford the luxury of consulting the great doctor himself. On no account miss the August numbers of "Blackwood" and the "New Review." The latter has a capital article (continued from July) on the " Talkers of To-day," in which Mr Goschen, Mr Labouchere, Lord Acton, Robert Browning and othernoted conversationalists are desciibed and discussed. Browning is the only one of this lot I've ever met, and on the occasion in j question he certainly did make himself par- i ticularly agreeable. Someone told me then, by the way, Browning dines out almost every evening. He and George Meredith ■ seem to be very much alike in that way. j They enjoy .small friendly dinner parties where they can talk at ease and are not " lionised." " Blackwood," of course, contains the story I recently mentioned to you of the strange wife-murder committed by a butcher's a&sistant in a dream. There can be no doubt whatever that the accused man, Jas. Wheeler, was morally innocent, anrl that the jury, when they found him technically guilty, but xecommended him strongly to mercy, had no notion he would be hanged. One of them, indeed, became so j seriously affected after heaiingof Wheeler's execution that he had to be confined in a lunatic asylum. The judge who tried the case appears to have shown himself equally obstinate, hard-headed and hard-hearted. He is now dead, or the publication of the sad story might have punished him a bit. "Blackwood" also contains some exciting Anglo-Indian reminiscences, under the title of " The Planters' Bungalow."' The yarns ' of the " Drink for Life or Death " and of the four men besieged on an engine by a cobra are capital specimens of after-ninner narrative. A notice of that remarkable book "Ideala" and an account of acruise in a small boat on the Zuyder Zee assist in making up an exceptionally first-rate number. Mr E. J. Goodman, author of " T<.o Curious," has a short, sensational tale in hand called ''His Other Self," which will be published immediately by Ward and Downey. The same firm have also just issued Farjeon's new novel in three volumes, " A Young Girl's Life." I have not seen it my-elf yet, but the "Scotsman" says: l< The story will please everyone who reads it, and is as good aa anything the author has done." . „, Mr W. E. Norris " Miss Shafto " i?, like everything "our modern Thackeray" writes, delightfully easy readiug. It can't be called "a great book," or even "an exceptionally clever novel " (Norris himself has done better work), but all who like a wholesome love story of every-day life, containing at least two capital character sketches, should send for the book. The fact that "Miss Shafto" ran penally through "Atalanta" (the improved girls' magazine) tells its own tale. The author of "A Window in Thrums and " Auld Licht Idylls" (which I have several times mentioned to you) is by way of becoming famous. Mr Gladstone has had the former work brought under his notice, and means on dit to " enthuse " on the subject in the September " Nineteenth Century." Amongst new two-shilling novels published this week may be mentioned Farjeon'i "Golden Land" (about Australia of course), Mrs Lynn Linton's " Paston Carew " (not one of this able author's best works) and Baring Goulds " Eve." Mr Fiederick Greenwood has resolved, notwithstanding his finmcial experiences with the "St. James's Gazette," to start another daily on similar lines. Several Conservative' magnates would gladly assist with money, etc., but Mr Greenwood prefers to be independent.